Kakuto Chojin Review

Kakuto Chojin, Microsoft's rarely spoken of and scarcely seen fighter, was originally a tech demo. Showing off the power of Xbox with fast-as-lightning fights that hold a consistent 60 fps, offer specular lighting, and feature colorful particles floating about (you can even see a fighter's breath in cold arenas), there's no doubting Kakuto Chojin is visually proficient. However, in the transition from tech demo to full game, someone forgot to add vital elements of presentation, leaving the game feeling empty and soulless.

Features

13 fighters to take to 13 arenas in a fight to the finish

Take on three friends at once in two different multiplayer modes (also includes one-on-one Versus Mode)

Each fighter has two different sets of moves

Fast action fights at 60 fps

5.1 Dolby Digital support

GameplayKakuto Chojin tells the typical fight game story about an underground tournament sponsored by a wealthy ne'er-do-well offering to give the winner the one thing they most want. The world's best ass-kickers gather on Drasuka Island to duke it out in a Fight Club-like atmosphere. Each character is there for their own reasons with hopes for their own prize. In fact, some characters even have a history with one another. But you'd never know that from the game presentation. There's no intro saying "Hey, there's this tournament at Drasuka Island, blah blah blah," no cut-scenes between fights showing one fighter's dislike for another or to set up story elements, and no ending cinematic. Beat all twelve contestants, win the tournament, and you get some scrolling text telling you how things ended. This is Dream Publishing's idea of a Story Mode. You shouldn't call something story mode if there is no story. Arcade mode would have done fine.

But here's the dumb part. These players entered the tournament, promised a prize from the host. But some of the endings don't even have them getting a prize. Like Rena, for example. She wins and Roxy, another contestant, tells her the truth about her father. She then turns the dad in (all text... fun!). So, uh, what about the prize?

This is Kakuto's biggest issue. Not just a weak and almost non-existent Story Mode, but almost non-existent presentation. Options are extremely limited, the menus are about as simple as can be, and the only extra is one unlockable character/stage.

A fighting game can overcome such shortcomings with a solid fight engine. On the surface, Kakuto seems to have this. The moment you hop into the game, you are pulling off a string of fluid combos. But the longer you play, the more evident the shallowness becomes. Rather than using the now more standard punch, kick, and grab buttons, Kakuto Chojin goes old school with the Y as high attack, X as middle attack, and A as low attack. The B button is the special attack button and acts as pressing all three buttons at once. The left trigger offers free movement (you can truly run around the arena freely if you want) and the right trigger guards and also acts as an attack modifier.

Moves are rather simplistic. You won't find fireball moves or anything that requires a great deal of rhythm. Most moves are just button combos with the occasional single-direction press. A few moves require left-right plus a button or down right, but not many. The only real complexity comes with some of the modified moves. You may need to attack high, then hold down the right trigger and attack middle-middle. But even this becomes simple after a little bit of practice. The special button is useful in two ways. You can do a special attack, signified by green fire around your feet and hands, or you can gain a speed boost. This boost will actually help perform certain combos and you may need to even speed boost in the middle of a combo. Those are the only really tricky combos. Add to this the fact that your special meter must refresh before you can speed boost again and you can see that several combos simply won't be available because you won't have any special meter available. This means you have to be accurate with your speed boost combos the first time out, since you'll have to wait for a recharge before you can try one again.

Blocking is simple enough. Right trigger guards and you can crouch to block low shots and duck high attacks or stand and guard for mid-range blows. There are some attacks which can't be blocked, which you'll find out on your own. Guarding isn't hard at all, but it's vital on the hardest difficulties.

One nice thing is that every battle ends with a slow-motion finish. The final blow comes out super-slow with surprisingly dramatic effect. You'll see some clipping here most of the time, but that's an acceptable trade off for a good "ooh" and "ahh" moment.

On the surface, the combat system seems good. But that quickly fades. However, each character in Kakuto Chojin has two fighting style sets, Dream Publishing's only real offer of replay value for the single-player mode. At first only the Kakuto style is available, but beat the Story mode with a character and their Chojin style unlocks. This is a completely different set of moves. The catch is you have to choose one style or the other before a match. So you can't mix Kakuto and Chojin styles, which would have been far more interesting. Each style set has about 50 moves, so there is quite a lot to learn for each character, but none of it will take even a moderate fighting veteran long to master. While it's cool to have an extra set of moves opened, it seems to be only half a reward, since you can't mix and match the two styles. Why not allow a true extension of the character and not just a separate set of skills?

Fights on Normal difficulty are short and to the point. The AI is pretty limited here and it's incredibly easy to just button-mash your way through the game. However, kicking the game up to Very Hard or Extreme difficulty provides more of a challenge. The AI simply blocks 80% of what you throw at it, but hey, fights last longer and it is more of a challenge. Many fights tend to be under thirty seconds a round. And though the arenas are enclosed, there are a few spots where you can ring out an opponent. But these instances are rare. That's a good thing, because ring outs look awful. You ring someone out and they fall into nothingness for a few seconds. "You win," the announcer says drolly. Well, of course they should say that, though it'd be nice to see a "Ring Out" indication of some kind. And the falling into a black void looks more like a bug than a design decision, which is a bad thing (in case you weren't sure).